


Easter Eggs

by Callii



Category: TOME: Terrain of Magical Expertise
Genre: Easter, Gen, internet friendships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-01
Updated: 2016-04-01
Packaged: 2018-05-30 14:21:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6427375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callii/pseuds/Callii
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Easter Sunday, and TOME has created an event: an egg hunt, where the winner will receive a prize. Everyone wants to enjoy the event, but some players will always try to ruin it for everyone...</p>
<p>(Or, that one where I attempt a holiday fic the week after the holiday in question. Which I don't even celebrate.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Easter Eggs

**Author's Note:**

> So, I got into TOME about a week ago and noticed a disturbing lack of fanfiction. Here's my contribution. Enjoy!

"--AND I'LL SMASH YOUR STUPID SCALY FACE INTO THE DIRT!"

With a manly "eep!", Nylocke, Slightly Terrified Dragon, jumped up onto a convenient tree branch, out of the (thankfully rather short) reach of the rampaging Granda. The dinosaur girl barreled past underneath him, disturbing leaves and scattering virtual animals but missing the green dragon man above her. Nylocke breathed a sigh of relief and leaped down from his branch. "Another narrow escape from the fearsome Lady Granda!" he declared. "But of course I did emergeth victorious, for I am... NYLOCKE! Dragon of Masterful Evasion of Conflicts!"

A feral, if somewhat high-pitched, growl from behind him let him know that his announcement had been premature. He turned slowly, coming face to face with the aforementioned dinosaur girl. "Oh..." he began, but Granda leapt at him, cutting him off mid-sentence.

Nylocke closed his eyes and waited for death's cold hand, but it never came. Opening his eyes again, he saw a significantly different hand-- large, purple, and very welcome-- holding Granda, raging and pounding at it with her small fists, off of the grateful dragon. The hand deposited a still-shrieking Granda at the top of the tallest nearby tree and collapsed into dark purple slime, which promptly reformed into a being resembling a violet GameCube controller. 

Nylocke grinned brightly. "Sir Gamecrazed!" he exclaimed. "Thou hast my utmost gratitude for thine timely rescue!"

Gamecrazed had no mouth, but Nylocke was sure the other was smiling in his own way. "You are welcome," he said. 

"Hey, guys!" another familiar voice called. Alpha's fire-engine red hair appeared from between some trees, and the boy himself reached Nylocke and Gamecrazed soon after. "Did you hear about the new event-- the Easter egg hunt?"

"No," Gamecrazed replied.

Nylocke was significantly louder in his denial. "No, I have not heard of this event! But I am certain I shall soon learn of it, for I am... NYLOCKE! Dragon of--" A bright blue egg hit him in the side of the head, bouncing off and hitting the ground. "--being hit unexpectedly by eggs!" he finished, bemused. 

"You'd learn about it a lot sooner if you let Alpha finish," a small gray imp told him, picking the egg up and tossing it up and down in his hand. 

"Ah, Squire!" Nylocke chirped. "It is most wonderful to see thee on this auspicious day!"

"I didn't get a greeting," Alpha complained quietly. 

Kirbopher shook his head, clearly exasperated with the draconic warrior. "Yeah, yeah, I got it. Great to see me." He paused. "And I'm not a squire. Hey, GC, hey, Alpha."

"Hey, Kirb."

"Hello."

"Anyway!" Kirbopher continued. "Easter eggs. So y'know how in games, easter eggs are those things the developers hide in the game-- stuff that's not part of the gameplay, just there for fun. Like secret rooms and stuff?"

Gamecrazed nodded. "I have heard of these, yes."

"And then in real life," Alpha picked up, "on Easter, people hide painted eggs, like the one Kirb's got, and kids find them. Which is where the in-game name comes from."

Kirbopher raised a thick eyebrow at his friend. "Alpha, we know that part." Alpha's face went red, and he looked away from the group. 

"No, do continue, Sir Alpha!" Nylocke burst out. "Thine speech was most educational!"

"I agree," Gamecrazed added quietly.

Alpha smiled slightly. "Okay, so, what the Netkings did was, they hid those--" he pointed to Kirbopher's blue egg "--around TOME. Whoever finds the most eggs gets some prize."

"So Alpha and me have been looking," Kirbopher said. "I found three, and he got two." Nylocke thought he heard the slightest hint of superiority in the imp's voice. "I checked this little crack in a cave that he'd already checked, and this baby was in there!" It was definitely more than just a hint now. Nylocke sighed inaudibly and took a large breath. 

"Sir Gamecrazed and I will most definitely join the two of ye on thy quest!" he announced. "I shall search within every crevice, scour every last blade of grass in each of the three lands, and seeketh out these eggs of many colors and collect every last one I find, for I am... NYLOCKE! Master of Finding and Bringing to my Friends Multicolored Eggs!" That phrasing sounded odd to him as soon as it exited his mouth, but he didn't stop long to think about it, instead pulling out his sword and "WHOOSH!"-ing away. 

:-:-:

Nylocke had discovered four eggs by the time his first problem made itself known. "However shall I carry them?" he asked nobody in particular. "I cannot simply... carry... them, for my hands may be strong, but they cannot hold so many small, fragile orbs at a single time! Whatever shall I do?" 

"You could always leave them in that convenient little crevice in the cliff face over there."

"Why, thank you, mysterious disembodied voice!" Nylocke exclaimed, immediately "WHOOSH!"-ing over and placing his eggs in said crevice. "...wait, what?" He swung his head-- and his sword-- around, but saw no one. "How peculiar..."

"Er, hello?"

Nylocke spun around and caught sight of a young man in a hat, glasses, and tie, and carrying an asterisk-shaped shield. "Ah! Lord Asterob! I did not think I would ever encounter ye whilst not in thy castle!"

Asterob flushed lightly and said, "Well, er, it's not really a castle, per se, but you're right, it must be odd to see me here. It's just that I've heard of this egg hunt event the Netkings made, and I wanted to have a gander at it, you know? Look, I've already found two."

Nylocke grinned toothily. "I have indeed heard of this grand quest to collect these Eggs of Easter! Indeed, I have already found four of their number among the violet cliffs of ;Lavendera!"

Asterob was duly impressed, and Nylocke pointed extravagantly at the crevice in which he had stashed his treasures. The Brit walked over and rummaged through the crevice for a few seconds. "Er, Nylocke? There's nothing in here."

"What ho?" the dragon exclaimed. "But where could they possibly have gone? Thou art certain the eggs have disappeared?"

"This crevice is completely empty," Asterob confirmed. 

Nylocke thrust his sword into the air, its point catching the sunlight and reflecting it in every direction. "Then we must go after them, for the foul thief cannot have gotten far!"

"Er, okay," Asterob said, readying his shield. "Let us... be off?"

Nylocke beamed. 

:-:-:

"Um, hi." Archy's voice was small and less confident than he might like, but even so, he was proud of getting the words out. "A-are you doing the egg hunt as well?" His grip was sweaty and he nearly dropped his three eggs, but he held tight. 

The other player smiled at him in a sultry manner. "Mm, you could say that." Her large ears twitched, and she tapped a long nail to her magenta lip. Archy gulped. 

"Uh, it's just, you're a bunny, so I just-- well, I-- oh..." He wished he didn't get so nervous around people. "A-are you giving out the eggs?" There! That was clear.

"Well," the bunny lady mused, "in the end, I'll give them all away. But for now, I'm taking them."

What? Archy tried to speak, but he couldn't find the words to say what he meant. Actually, he wasn't really sure what he meant at all; his head felt a little bit scrambled, his mouth was dry, and the surroundings seemed to be vanishing in some sort of mist. 

Wait-- that wasn't just him, was it? He really was surrounded by mist! Archy waved his hands frantically in front of his face, almost dropping his eggs in the process, but the dust didn't dissipate. He sat down hard on the ground, trying to regain a bit of stability. 

"It's a shame," Archy heard the bunny lady purr from somewhere above him. "You're a cute one. Still, money is money~"

He felt her hands, prying the eggs out of his clammy own, and then the woman-- along with his eggs-- was gone. 

:-:-:

"WHOOSH!"

Asterob sighed and shifted his weight a little, spurring his shield/makeshift surfboard on. The dragon had taken off immediately after their last conversation had ended, and it was all the Brit could do to keep up. He wondered idly if Nylocke had any idea where they were going, but then a particularly strong gust of wind blew his balance, and his train of thought, away. 

"Er, excuse me?" he yelled over the wind. "Nylocke?"

"WHAT IS IT, LORD ASTEROB?" The dragon's voice boomed over the wind and into Asterob's skull. 

"Could you--" a gust smacked him in the face, stopping his sentence momentarily "--slow down?!"

"WHAT?"

"SLOW--"

Nylocke stopped suddenly, and Asterob careened past, going a good few yards before executing a smooth U-turn and gliding to a stop next to him. "Er, I didn't mean we needed to stop."

The green man didn't look at him, and Asterob followed Nylocke's gaze to see a young blond boy dressed in orange, sitting out in the open, hugging a bow to his chest and crying. Asterob's eyes widened; he hopped off his shield, slung it over his shoulder, and hurried over to the boy, crouching down in front of him. "Hello."

The boy sniffled. "H-hi."

"What happened?" Asterob murmured.

"Sh-she took my eggs," the boy whimpered. "I h-had three of them, and she t-took them."

Asterob sat down across from the boy, giving him his full attention. "That sounds awful," he sympathized, and the boy nodded. "What's your name?"

"Archy," he whispered, looking up at Asterob for the first time. His eyes were baby blue and swimming with tears.

"Archy, huh? That's a good name. I gather you enjoy archery, then?"

"Yeah," Archy said softly. "M-my dad taught me."

Asterob gave what he hoped was a reassuring smile. "That sounds like a lot of fun." Be gentle, he reminded himself. "Er... would you tell me what happened to you? My friend and I might be able to help."

The young archer cleared his throat and wiped a hand across his eyes. "I had three eggs," he began. "Then I saw this lady with bunny ears, so I- I don't know, I thought she might've been p-put in the game as the Easter bunny or something like that."

Asterob's stomach sank. "Can you describe her, please?"

"Um, she- she was wearing all black, and she had purple lipstick," Archy told him. "And she used some kind of smoke."

Suspicions confirmed, Asterob stood up. "I know who that is," he told the boy. "She stole something from me once as well."

"Did you get it back?" Archy asked, wide-eyed.

In response, Asterob pulled out his shield. "Someone helped me. And I'm going to help you."

Archy clutched his bow tighter to his body. "R-really? You'll help get my eggs back?"

"Of course," Asterob assured the little archer.

"Th-thank you so much!" Archy burst out, beginning to cry again. "Y-you're amazing!"

Asterob blushed a little. "Well, I'll do my best."

A faint, female-sounding voice came from the archer's character model, and Archy's eyes turned gray momentarily, having disconnected himself from the game without logging out. After a few seconds, he returned. "Um,  
Mom says we're going to my aunt and uncle's house for Easter, so I have to go."

Asterob smiled at the young boy. "Have fun," he told him. "I'll try to have your eggs back by the time you log back on."

"Thank you so much," Archy said again, then logged off. 

Asterob stood, dusted his pants off, and turned to Nylocke, who had been unusually silent throughout the whole exchange. The dragon was watching him intently, and Asterob felt like an ant under a microscope. "Er, yes?"

Nylocke didn't say anything for a few minutes-- another surprise. Eventually, he seemed to give himself a small shake, then grinned broadly. "Now! Young Sir Archy spoke of a woman in the guise of a rabbit, yet with the mind of a fox! We must seek out this woman and reclaim the property she hath stolen! WHOOSH!"

"W-wait!" Asterob cried, but Nylocke was already gone.

:-:-:

"--and I'm about to kick his ass to ;Mechcity, but then he pulls out this freaking MASSIVE cannon and tries to blast me! So I dodge, and THEN I kick his ass to ;Mechcity."

Kirbopher finished his story with a wild arm gesture, nearly hitting Alpha in the face. The redhead glanced at him, a mock-annoyed look on his face, and Kirb held up his hands in a 'surrender' motion. "Sorry, man."

"It's fine," Alpha said, dropping his expression in favor of a warm smile. "Call it me giving you something in exchange for beating you all the time."

"You don't beat me ALL the time," Kirb protested. "Just... most of the time."

"And the last time you beat me was..."

"Shut up."

"Alpha, two thousand. Kirb, zero."

Gamecrazed, who was sliding along ahead of Kirb and Alpha and ignoring the conversation, stretched out a violet arm and shook a tree branch. A lime-green egg fell out of the leaves, landing right on Kirb's foot. "Wha- hey!" the disgruntled imp yelled. "Watch where you're tossing those!"

"I thought you wished for me to pick up and give you any eggs I saw," the shadow said placidly, but Kirb was sure he was laughing at him. 

"That doesn't mean you DROP them on--"

"Shh!" Alpha hissed.

"Seriously, man, I get that you're good at finding the things, but you need to--"

"SHH!"

"--just watch where you're throwing them, is all--"

"SHUT UP!" Alpha whisper-yelled.

"Are you taking his side?!" Kirb didn't bother with the 'whispering' part. 

The angel shook his head. "I heard something," he said quietly, pointing to his left. "Another player, I think."

Kirb looked into the trees, but saw nothing. "Are you sure? Like, it couldn't've been an animal or someth--" A flash of black, brown, and smoky grey-- too large to be anything but a person-- appeared in his peripheral vision for a second, and he whipped his head around. "Shit, you're right."

"I told you!"

"Is now REALLY the time?"

"You'd do the same!"

Kirb considered that. "Fair point. BUT STILL!"

"Perhaps we should focus," Gamecrazed interrupted, "on the other player. They may be a threat."

"Ah, nobody's much of a threat," Kirb dismissed, waving a hand. "I'm just that good."

Alpha coughed. "I seem to recall Zetto absolutely owning you in the Gemini Tournament."

"It couldn't be Zetto," Kirb said. "He's--" right here, he didn't say "--blue."

"Blue?" Alpha asked. "Wait, what did you see?"

"He saw me~!"

Three heads snapped to the woman who was suddenly standing in front of them, a basket filled with eggs dangling from her wrist. Large bunny ears, dark skin, magenta lips, and a black catsuit-- she was instantly recognizable.

"You!"

Alpha pointed an accusing finger at Dustbunny, and Kirb remembered hearing about how she and Neomutant had tried to remove the Forbidden Power from Alpha at the Tournament. Alpha clearly hasn't forgiven her for it, he thought, stomach twisting. 

Alpha wasn't done. "You're that woman that tried to--"

"Mm, I only did what I was paid to do," she interrupted. Kirb sighed inaudibly and hoped Alpha wouldn't press the point. "Just like now."

Wait, what?

"Who's paying you?!" he blurted out. He coughed awkwardly when all three others stared at him. "I mean, it's not the same people as last time." Shit. 

"You don't know that~" she purred, an edge of suspicion in her tone. Alpha's brow was wrinkled in confusion, and GC's expression was unreadable as always.

Cover, quick! "Well," he said-- hopefully smoothly-- "the first time, you were stealing a dangerous power. Now you're stealing Easter eggs. It's probably someone else."

She raised a purple eyebrow. "Power or eggs, it doesn't matter to me. Someone offered the job and the money, so I took it. Just like I took your eggs~!"

"But you didn't take our- HEY, WAIT!" Alpha's shout seemed to come from farther away, but when Kirb looked, he saw nothing but gray mist. She used the conversation to distract us, then filled the area! he realized belatedly. And now I've got no idea where she is! 

"Hey there, little guy~" All of a sudden, Dustbunny was in his face, entirely too close for comfort. He jumped back, cursing under his breath, and checked to make sure all fifteen of the group's eggs were safely in his inventory. 

Dustbunny appeared once more out of the mist, long-nailed fingers tapping at a keyboard. Kirb read the letters as they showed up-- run invsee.exe. "Shit!" he muttered, but it was too late. The hacker snatched the fifteen eggs out of his inventory, then waved tauntingly at him before vanishing into her mist. 

The smog faded after a few minutes, and Kirb sought out Alpha. The younger man's eyes met his. "Did she..."

Kirbopher sighed heavily. "Yeah. Yeah, she did."

:-:-:

"--she shall not be allowed to continue committing these misdeeds! Any dastardly cur that doth steal from one so young deserves nothing less than justice, which I shall serve at a high temperature!"

As he surfed along on his shield, Asterob listened-- rather unwillingly-- to Nylocke's tirade about Dustbunny. They'd been searching for about fifteen minutes by now, but even the usually polite Asterob was growing increasingly exasperated with the other man. He sighed and adjusted his hat, which was slipping off his head.

"--giveth her a beating she'll not forgetteth for many millennia!"

The Brit sighed again, reaching up to fiddle with his glasses. As he did so, he spotted three figures on the ground to his right. "Er, Nylocke? I think your friends are here!"

"Ah, so they are!" Nylocke exclaimed, glancing around. "Er... where might they be?"

"On the right, your five o'clock," he responded wryly. He turned his shield so that he was heading right in the group's direction, trusting that Nylocke was doing the same. Sliding to a stop, he lifted a hand in greeting. "Hi, guys!"

"Asterob?" Kirbopher asked, clearly surprised. "You don't seem the type to go egg hunting."

"Well, I'm full of surprises!" Asterob replied. 

The redhead standing a bit behind Kirbopher-- Alpha, if he remembered correctly-- raised a hand slightly. "Ah, we've met, haven't we? At the mansion during that one quest. And weren't you in the Gemini Tournament?"

"Indeedly so!" Nylocke's loud, exuberant voice sounded from behind Asterob, who started violently. 

"Don't do that!" he yelped. 

Nylocke had the grace to look sheepish. "Ah-- my apologies, Lord Asterob." He turned to the redhead. "Yes indeed, Sir Alpha! Lord Asterob faced Sir Gamecrazed and myself in the semifinals! He was most courageous and skillful!"

For the third time that day, Asterob blushed. "Er, it was just a tournament, is all."

"Nay!" Nylocke flung a green arm around Asterob's shoulders, gesticulating wildly. "Thou didst show bravery of the highest caliber!"

"He'd've had to be," Kirbopher muttered to Alpha, "to partner up with the spinning trash can." The redhead slapped his arm lightly. 

"I speak not of the Gemini Tournament!" Nylocke announced. "Nay, earlier this morn, Lord Asterob and I didst encounter a young lad whose treasured eggs were stolen! My companion then swore to defeat the foul villain and return the eggs!" The man had evidently worked himself into a fit of emotion. "Oh, I am overcome!" 

Asterob glanced at the grounded dragon, then pointedly looked back to the group. "Er, well, it wasn't as heroic as he makes it sound," he explained. "But he couldn't've been more than twelve, and besides, I do know the person who committed the crime."

"You know that Playboy bunny?" the imp burst out. 

"I faced her during the Gemini Tournament," Asterob said calmly. "She stole my shield."

"Oh yeah..."

"More to the point, she stole your eggs as well?" he inquired. 

Alpha nodded. "She said someone was paying her."

"So we have to find her, find the eggs, find out who she's working for, find your kid to return the eggs to, and find fucking Jesus, apparently," Kirbopher snarked. "Count me out."

"It's your eggs as well, Kirb," Alpha pointed out. 

"Don't care enough."

The redhead rolled his eyes. "Fine." To Asterob, he asked, "What's the boy's name, anyway?"

"Archy."

Kirbopher jerked up as if tased. "Okay. Okay, where's the rabbit? Because she's late. For an important date. With my sword."

Alpha gave a sort of half-laugh. "Well," he said. "Glad to have you on the team."

:-:-:

In the end, it didn't take long to find Dustbunny. She was terrorizing some newbies when the group caught up to her, and their approach was enough to draw her attention. "Mm, found more eggs for me~?"

"They're not for you," Asterob said-- he had, at some point along the line, decided to be the group's unofficial speaker. "They belong to the people you took them from."

"Oh, relax, hero," the bunny purred with a smirk. "It's just a game, after all."

Asterob glared. "Yes, and you're ruining it for everyone."

Smoke began to fill the air, hiding everyone but Dustbunny from Asterob's view. The Brit unslung his shield from its place on his back, holding it at the ready. He stood and waited for her to make a move...

and waited...

and waited. 

"...you don't have any actual attacks, do you?"

She shrugged eloquently. "My talents lie more in the procurement of objects than the dirty work. So sue me."

Asterob was completely baffled. "Then what was the point of this?"

"Mostly to stall," she admitted, "until my employer logs on and takes the eggs."

"That was... rather upfront."

"Why lie?"

He couldn't think of a reason, so he left it at that. 

On his left, he began to see moving figures. Dustbunny's smog was dissipating, he realized, and he was able to see his friends again. Alpha's distinctive fiery red hair shone like a beacon, and Kirb was visible next to him. Gamecrazed was-- well, Asterob wasn't quite sure; he blended in rather well. The new players were gathered in a bunch behind the others, and Nylocke was--

"HAAAAAH!"

\--leaping at Dustbunny from behind, ice-blue sword swinging in a downward arc and meeting her head right in the space between her bunny ears. She had enough time to let out a "what the f-" before Nylocke's attack took her out of the game. 

The dragon landed lightly on the lavender ground in front of Dustbunny's fallen character model. "Victory!" he announced simply. 

Asterob smiled. Victory indeed. 

:-:-:

They waited in the area for a few hours, until nightfall, but Dustbunny's mysterious employer never showed up, nor did she come back. It was suggested that perhaps they pulled out at the last minute, or Dustbunny decided that the job wasn't worth it, or there never was an employer, and she'd made up the whole thing to cover her embarrassment at wanting a bunch of digital Easter eggs. 

Eventually the group got around to the eggs themselves. The gaggle of newbies was very happy to get their eggs back, but nobody knew who else the hacker may have stolen from. 

"We could do a game-wide announcement," Alpha suggested. "Anyone who got their eggs stolen can reclaim them."

Kirbopher shook his head. "There's no way to prove they're telling the truth and not just trying to get free eggs."

"If that is indeed the case," announced Nylocke, "we shall give the eggs to the young Sir Archy when he returns!"

"Wait, what?" Kirbopher asked. 

"He doth deserve some manner of compensation for all he hath experienced today," the dragon elaborated.

Kirbopher pondered that, saying nothing. 

Drawing his sword, Nylocke leaped into the air. "We have had a great victory today! The villain was vanquished, the property regained, and the friendships renewed in strength! Truly, today is a day to be remembered-- written in history!"

"We didn't even get to fight," Kirbopher muttered.

Nylocke swung his sword around to point in the imp's general direction. "Ah, but that is where thou art incorrect, Squire! A fight was had, and a fight was won!"

"You owned her in one hit."

"A fight was had," Nylocke emphasized, "and a fight was won. Today, the side of good and justice has triumphed over the side of evil! The--"

A small voice coughed. "Uh, Mr. Nylocke?"

"--will always emerge victorious from the quagmire!" Nylocke ended his sentence with a flourish, then noticed the young boy in orange, who had logged on at some point during his speech. "Ah, young Sir Archy!"

"H-hi," he said. 

Asterob approached the little archer. "Archy, hello! As you might notice, we found the woman and got the eggs back." He placed five brightly-colored Easter eggs in Archy's hands. 

"Um, there's- there's two extra," Archy informed him. 

Asterob smiled warmly. "So there are."

Young Archy may have been, but he knew what the older man had done. "Th-thank you. For everything."

"Ah, it's nothing," Asterob told him, but Nylocke knew it was far more than nothing to both the shield-wielder and the archer. 

Plucking four eggs from the pile reclaimed from Dustbunny, Nylocke handed them to Archy. "Why, young Sir Archy! I do believe these belong to ye as well?" 

Archy tried to refuse them, but Nylocke wouldn't take them back. Finally, the archer accepted the gift with a shy smile. "Um, thank you."

"You are indeed welcome, young Sir Archy!" Nylocke beamed and threw an arm around Archy's slim shoulders. 

In Nylocke's peripheral vision, he saw Alpha nudging Kirbopher, waving an arm at Archy. "Go on," he heard the redhead hiss. 

The imp trudged up to the archer and dragon, rather reluctantly, and for a moment he and Archy just stared at each other. Nylocke tactfully removed his arm from Archy's shoulders and retreated to a respectful distance, though still within earshot. 

"Sorry."

Both players blurted the word out at the same time. "Wait," Kirbopher said, "why are you sorry?"

"W-well, you let me be your partner at the Gemini Tournament, and I let you down," Archy mumbled, shamefaced. 

Kirbopher shook his head. "Uh, no. I was a jerk, I let you down, and I'm the one who should be sorry."

Nylocke was inwardly surprised at Kirbopher's honesty and that the imp had swallowed his pride. He made sure he let none of this on, though, electing to remain quiet and watch the events. 

Kirbopher was still talking. "You seriously deserved better than me, kid, and I--"

"Give him the eggs!" Alpha coughed from behind Kirbopher. 

"Yeah, yeah, getting there. Here ya go. Fifteen Easter eggs. Don't spend them all in one... basket."

Archy looked like he'd been given a million dollars. "R-really? For- for me?"

"Yeah," Kirbopher said simply. 

The little archer looked dangerously close to tears again, and Kirbopher gave him an awkward pat on the shoulder. "Um, there, there, kid. It was nothing. Seriously." That seemed to be Archy's cue to burst into full-on blubbering, and Kirbopher shot Nylocke a panicked look. The dragon just smiled serenely and walked away. 

:-:-:

As the moon began to rise, Archy sat on the dock in ;Mechcity with the others-- his friends, he thought with a small smile. Nylocke and Gamecrazed were talking-- both quietly, by some small miracle-- off to the side. Alpha, Kirb, and Flamegirl, who had been with her family all day, sat together on the edge of the dock, legs dangling off. Archy peeked over the side and gulped at the sheer drop. He inched away a little bit.

"It's a bit intimidating, no?" came the voice of his current companion. 

Archy nodded a little. "Y-yeah."

Asterob smiled at him, calming his nerves. "I just try to focus on how beautiful it is, and that helps me."

"O-okay," Archy mumbled, peering over the edge once more. Asterob was right-- it really was beautiful, deep blues and violets dotted with twinkling stars. The full moon shone peacefully, illuminating everything in a silver glow. "Wow," he whispered. "You're right."

"Aren't I usually?" the Brit teased, patting Archy's shoulder kindly. 

Archy nodded, still gazing at the moon and the night sky. Impulsively, he stood up and drew his bow, nocking a light arrow and firing it into the sky. The bow was new-- his prize for winning the egg hunt-- and it shot like a dream. The trailed a line of sparkles through the sky, looking for all the world like a shooting star. 

A shooting star... maybe he could be one of those one day. His new bow was the first step, his new friends a few more, and now-- with his new sense of determination--

Well, Archy didn't know where he might land, but he knew that wherever it may be, he wouldn't miss his mark.

-fin-

**Author's Note:**

> I hope that wasn't too painful, considering I've never written any of these characters before. I tried to keep them in character as well as I could, but I don't know how well I managed. Please do leave a comment and let me know. 
> 
> Also, yeah, it's a week after Easter, and yeah, I don't celebrate it. Honestly, I've just always wanted to do an egg hunt. Hope I did it justice.


End file.
